Words

It's so easy to say things that are less than God's standard for speech. It's so easy to fall into the pattern of the world with our mouths.

It's one thing to not swear. Some of my non-Christian friends restrain from swearing. (Though I fail in this area.) But proper Christian speech needs to be much, much more than that.

"Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen."
Ephesians 4:29

We are not to say ANYTHING that is going to effect those around us negatively. Wow. No complaining. No gossip. No passing the day. And if we take this to the fullest extent, we can only speak what will actually build others up. So no small talk, sports talk, wasted time and breath talk.

It's easy to think that it would be better to take a vow of silence so that we don't fail in this area. I mean for me, I do ALL of those bad things. As I stated above, I swear on occasion! Maybe being silent would be better.

But that is not all that we are commanded to do. Look at this verse:
"speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord," (Ephesians 5:19).

We are to keep speaking, to ourselves, to each other, to the non-Christians we meet. We are just supposed to use every word that comes out of our mouths for the glory of Him who is the Living Word.